WHEN he stood up in the Dail yesterday, Mr Quinn said he was proud of the spectacular progress his Government had made in developing the economy. The Budget was about compassion and confidence, as well as an injection of £650 million, the biggest in the State's history.
Mr Quinn's subliminal election message, of course, echoed that of the former British premier Harold Macmillan: "You've never had it so good." But that's not so. Irish workers work just as hard now as 30 years ago, and have to pay more than double the proportion of their salaries for their houses and their cars than they did in 1967.
A glance through the employment advertisements in The Irish Times of January 1967, show wages that seem cruelly low. A salesman aged 25 could expect to earn £1,000 a year, one with more experience earned a mere £2,000.
County councils advertising for a temporary engineer were willing to pay just £1,490, office managers commanded £1,600, and Irish solicitors and barristers willing to work in South Africa for the year were being paid £3,000.
On these figures, then, a reasonable salary for a young professional was £1,500.
But if the salaries seem pitiful, consider the house prices that month. A four bedroomed home in Foxrock cost £4,900, a threebedroomed house on the sea front in Clontarf cost £4,000. A large house in Dundrum, with four bedrooms and a landscaped garden, could be had for £4,500, and a house off Kill Avenue with three bedrooms and two reception rooms was priced at £3,500. A large, detached bungalow in Killiney stretched to £6,509.
The other main expense in most people's lives in 1967 was - as now - a car. New, these ranged from £573 for the nippy NSU Prinz, to a Mercedes 200 for £1,600. A new Vauxhall Victor ("Take a look at that sleek, new 1967 styling!") cost £950, a Hillman Hunter was £922 and a Wolseley Hornet cost £682. A second hand car, such as a three year old Morris Oxford, cost £525.
In 1967, therefore an average young professional could expect an excellent house in a desirable area to cost less than three times his annual wage. A family car, brand new, would cost around six months' salary.
Moving forward to January 1972 - 25 years ago - a similar young professional could expect to be on about £2,800 a year. According to The Irish Times from that month, the same house in Foxrock cost £7,100 or 2 1/2 times his annual wage.
A car, for example a new Austin 1100, ran to £1,144 or five months' salary. A spanking new Rover 3500-5 could be had for £2,750, a year's salary.
Before adopting such an ebullient tone, Mr Quinn might compare and contrast this with today, where a reasonable salary for a young professional might be £20,000. The same house in Foxrock or Dundrum costs at least £180,000 - nine times his or her annual salary, and a family car, say a Renault Megane, costs £14,000 or eight months' salary.